The first step on the road to decarbonization is to increase energy efficiency. To this end, three Swiss cosmetics companies, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and Kinematica AG, have developed guidelines in a two-year project with the support of SWISS SCC and SwissEnergy. This resulted in a set of instructions, which is available online as a document in German, English and French for interested parties in the cosmetics industry at Projects – Swiss SCC (www.swissscc.ch/leistungen/projekte).
Cosmetic products and their manufacturing processes are complex. The authors have compiled the many years of experience of the experts involved and clearly sorted the approaches for optimizing energy consumption and resource use in cosmetics production into five efficiency concepts (EC). An introductory procedure for safe scale-up was established at the cosmetics manufacturing companies. This was accompanied by a three-stage quality check. Energy savings of around 30% were immediately achieved in the companies. These were achieved without investment and were also associated with productivity and cost savings. The companies involved to date have comprehensively expanded their internal communication between development and laboratory. SOPs now contain additional process parameters, such as shear rate and energy input. All three participating companies have significantly increased their sustainability in production as part of this project and are on the way to fully CO2-neutral production.